'The Magicians' Renewed for Second Season at Syfy

The NBCUniversal-owned cable network announced Monday that it has renewed its adaptation of The Magicians for a second season.

Expected to air in 2017, season two of the series based on Lev Grossman's best-selling novels, will again consist of 13 episodes.

The news comes after The Magicians has averaged a respectable 1.7 million total viewers, including 853,000 among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic when factoring in three days of delayed viewing. Syfy also noted that the drama is particularly strong among the adults 18-34 set, growing week-over-week for an average of 180 percent above the cabler's primetime delivery in the demo.

"Thanks to an extraordinarily gifted creative team of executive producers and our partners at Universal Cable Productions, The Magicians has become a buzzed-about hit, enchanting fans of the novels as well as attracting new and younger audiences to Syfy,” Syfy president Dave Howe said.

Starring Jason Ralph, Stella Maeve and Olivia Taylor Dudley, The Magicians is part of a major initiative at Syfy to focus more on more traditional science-fiction fare. The renewal comes as the mandate has become quite successful with renewals for The Expanse as well as 12 Monkeys. The network also recently picked up Ben Affleck and Matt Damon-produced drama Incorporated to series and has Gale Anne Hurd's Hunters on the way as well as a development slate that includes a take on Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World and a Superman prequel, Krypton, from David Goyer.